UAE

Those are not my words; they belong to the editorial board of The National, Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE). The editorial is quoted in full below. It is a comment on a development: the Cabinet of the UAE has just approved the setting up of a Government Communication Office as part of its modernization agenda. The editorial points out why this is a major development. I draw attention to the editorial because it is an eloquent statement about one of the under-appreciated issues in the governance reform agenda...the vital importance of a government's ability to engage in two-way communication with its own citizens, and why this is one of the reasons why the nature of the public sphere in a country has consequences for the governance outcomes that we seek. About all this, more later. Here is The National: